The Hubei Provincial Museum () is a first class museum in China, with a large amount of state-level historic and cultural relics. Established in 1953, the museum moved to its present location in 1960 and gained its present name in 1963. Since 1999 a number of new buildings have been added. The museum received 1,992,512 visitors in 2017.
The museum is located in the Wuchang District of Wuhan, Hubei Province, not far from the west shore of Wuhan's East Lake. It has a collection of over 460,000 objects, including the Sword of Goujian, an ancient set of bronze bells (Bianzhong), extensive artifacts from the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng and the tombs at Baoshan, and portions of the Guodian Chu Slips. The particular importance of several of the archaeological items in the museum's collection has been recognized by the national government by including them into the list of Chinese cultural relics forbidden to be exhibited abroad.
History The predecessor of the Hubei Provincial Museum was the Hubei Provincial Public Scientific Experiment Hall established in 1928. In 1953, the Hubei Provincial Cultural Bureau began to prepare and it became the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural History Research. In 1959, the Hubei Provincial Museum Preparation Office was built in the Donghu Scenic Area of Wuhan. In 1960, the renowned writer and patriot Dong Biwu inscribed the name of the Hubei Provincial Museum. In 2002, Hubei Provincial Museum and the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Archaeology merged for office operations. In 2023, the Hubei Provincial Museum and Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Archaeology separated and operated independently. In 2023, the Hubei Provincial Cultural Exchange Information Center and the Provincial Institute of Art and Craft were integrated into the Hubei Provincial Museum. In the same year, Hubei Provincial Museum and the institute operated independently respectively.
Location and layout The Hubei Provincial Museum is located in Donghu Scenic Area of Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. The total construction area is 125,000 square meters, and the exhibition area is 38,000 square meters. It forms an overall layout of "four museums, three centers, and two bases". The overall layout of the museum area reflects the symmetrical central axis of Chu Dynasty architecture, "one platform and one hall", "multiple platforms in groups", and "multiple groups in clusters" of high platform architectural layout format. In 2021, a new building was built on the south side of the original building complex (the old building). The new building has 5 floors (4 floors above ground and 1 floor underground). It has 12 thematic exhibition halls, 1 digital exhibition hall, 3 temporary exhibition halls, and a chime bell performance hall. The exterior of the old building is in the shape of a ladder, while the exterior of the new building is in the shape of an inverted ladder. The top wall of the new building is made of glass, which allows visitors to view the scenery of Donghu through the glass wall. The interior design of the new building highlights the cultural elements.
Exhibition layout
Permanent exhibition The museum's permanent exhibitions include Marquis Yi of Zeng, the Special Exhibition of the Sword of Goujian, The Zeng Family - Unveiling the Secrets of the State of Zeng, Eight Hundred Years of Chu, Liangzhuangwang Collection - Treasures from the Zhenghe Era, and Heaven Sounds - Early Musical Instruments Found in Hubei. The museum lists Eight Hundred Years of Chu (楚国八百年), on the third floor of the South Hall, among its permanent exhibitions. Reporting on the gallery by the Hubei Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism has documented Guodian bamboo manuscripts there, including Taiyi Shengshui.
Temporary exhibitions Temporary displays feature Chinese cultural relics from different themes and periods, such as "Temporary Exhibition of Treasures from the Uffizi Gallery in Italy".
Virtual exhibitions Also known as "Cloud Viewing of Exhibits". People can access the Hubei Provincial Museum via electronic devices to view and appreciate the exhibits.
Important collection of items The Hubei Provincial Museum currently houses over 460,000 items (sets), among which 1,095 are first-class cultural relics. The museum's collection includes bronze ware, lacquer and woodware, gold and silverware, jade, ceramics, calligraphy and paintings, etc. These relics mainly come from archaeological excavations (such as the Panlongcheng Shang Dynasty site and the Shashihe Site in Tianmen) and private donations. The unearthed cultural relics from archaeological excavations reflect the ancient art of the Hubei region and have a strong "Jingchu Civilization" flavor.
The Sword of Goujian
It is hailed as "the best sword in the world". This artifact was unearthed in December 1965 from Tomb No. 1 at Wangshan, Jiangling, Hubei Province. The sword is 55.6 centimeters long and 5 centimeters wide. This sword has not rusted for over 2,000 years and the patterns are clearly visible. There are two lines of bird-tail script inscriptions on the blade, which read "King Goujian of Yue, I use this sword for myself". After experts' research, Goujian is identified as King Goujian. This sword was the main short weapon during the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States periods.
Bianzhong of Marquis Yi of Zeng
The Bianzhong of Marquis Yi of Zeng was discovered in Suixian County, Hubei Province, in 1978, unearthed from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng. They were musical instruments used in the courts of the pre-Qin period. The bell stand is 7.48 meters long and 2.65 meters high. The complete set of bells consists of 54 pieces. It is the largest and best-preserved set of bells discovered in China to date. It represents the highest achievements of China's pre-Qin ritual and music civilization and bronze casting technology.
Bronze Vase and Plate of Marquis Yi of Zeng It is discovered in 1978 at the Marquis Yi of Zeng tomb in Suizhou City, Hubei Province. It is one of the representatives of Chinese bronze craftsmanship and also the pinnacle of bronze wares from the Shang and Zhou dynasties. It consists of a vase and a plate. The vase is 30.1 centimeters tall and 25 centimeters in diameter, while the plate is 23.5 centimeters tall and 58 centimeters in diameter. Its shape and patterns are extremely complex and exquisite.
The Tiger-Seat Bird-Shaped Drum It also known as the Tiger-Seat Phoenix-Shaped Drum. It was unearthed in Tomb No. 2 of Jiulandun in Hubei Province in 2002. It belongs to the middle to late Warring States period. The Tiger-Seat Bird-Shaped Drum is 135.9 centimeters tall and 134 centimeters wide. It is made of wood and comes in colors such as black, red, yellow and silver-white. The Tiger-Seat Bird-Shaped Drum is an instrument of the noble class in the Chu Kingdom. Its design features a phoenix and a tiger. The phoenix is the totem of the Chu people. This artifact showcases the romance of Chu culture.
Blue and White plum vase of the four loves in Yuan Dynasty
It was unearthed in 2006 from the Yingjing King's tomb in Zhongxiang, Hubei Province. The overall height is 38.7 centimeters, the diameter at the mouth is 6.4 centimeters, and the diameter at the bottom is 13 centimeters. It belongs to the "Yuan" Dynasty and is hailed as "the panda of ceramics". The vase features four pictures of stories about people - "Four Adventures Picture". "The Four Adventures Picture" includes "Wang Xizhi's Love for Orchids Picture", "Zhou Dunyi's Love for Lotus Picture", "Tao Yuanming's Love for Chrysanthemums Picture", and "Lin Hengjing's Love for Plum Blossoms and Cranes Picture". It symbolizes beauty, purity, and elegance, and at the same time reflects people's yearning for rural life and seclusion at that time.
Guodian Chu Slips
The Guodian Chu Slips are a group of Warring States period bamboo manuscripts excavated in 1993 from Tomb No. 1 at Guodian, near Jingmen, Hubei. The tomb yielded about 800 bamboo slips, of which about 730 were inscribed, containing more than 13,000 Chinese characters; it is generally dated to around 300 BCE. The corpus contains manuscripts associated in later scholarship with both Confucian and Daoist intellectual traditions; Kenneth W. Holloway has cautioned that imposing the later Han-period division between "Confucian" and "Daoist" schools on the Guodian material can obscure its earlier intellectual context.
The Hubei Provincial Museum's online collection catalogue includes three Guodian manuscript groups: Ziyi, Taiyi Shengshui, and the B group of the Laozi. Taiyi Shengshui and other Guodian material have been displayed in the museum's permanent Eight Hundred Years of Chu exhibition.
The Guodian Laozi manuscripts are important to the textual history of the Laozi (Daodejing) and to the study of early Daoist thought. They predate the Mawangdui Laozi manuscripts and are the oldest extant manuscript witnesses to the Laozi known to scholarship. About 2,000 characters on the Guodian slips correspond to material in the later received text, but the manuscripts differ in sequence and wording and have contributed to scholarly debate about how the Laozi was compiled and transmitted. The Laozi later became central to both philosophical and religious Daoism.
Taiyi Shengshui is also important for the study of early Chinese cosmology. The museum describes it as the first discovered pre-Qin document concerning the generation of the cosmos. Scholar Erica Brindley describes it as one of the relatively few early Chinese texts to present a detailed cosmogony, beginning with Taiyi ("the Great One") and water, while noting that the precise relationship of this material to what was later classified as Daoist thought remains uncertain.
Yunmeng Shuihudi Qin Bamboo Slips
It was unearthed in Yunmeng County, Hubei Province in 1975. It is the first batch of large-scale Qin bamboo inscriptions discovered in Chinese archaeology, documenting the laws of the Qin Dynasty. Its contents cover agriculture, warehouses, currency, trade, labor, appointment of officials, etc. It is of great significance for studying the war history of Qin's unification of the six states, the official system, agricultural production, and the development of industry and commerce. It is presented in a hierarchical format and is also a first-hand source of information for studying hierarchies.
Chongyang Bronze Drum It was discovered in Chongyang County, Hubei Province in 1977. It is currently the earliest bronze drum of the Shang Dynasty in China. The drum is 75.5 centimeters in height and consists of three parts: the drum body, the drum base, and the drum cap. The drum cap, drum body, and drum base all feature lotus dot patterns and cloud and thunder patterns. When the drum surface is struck, it produces a sound, demonstrating the mighty spirit of the Shang Dynasty during rituals or warfare. This object provides materials for the study of ancient Chinese bronze wares and the ritual and music system.
Yunxian Man Cranium II
In 1989 and 1990, two skull fossils were discovered successively in Yunxian, Hubei Province. Skull No. 1 is of a female and is aged between 25 and 45 years old, dating back approximately 1 million years; Skull No. 2 is of a male and is also aged between 25 and 45 years old, dating back approximately 1 million years. Skull No. 1 and Skull No. 2 have preserved complete cranial regions and largely intact facial regions. They belong to the Homo erectus type. Through research, it can be seen that the people of Yunxian were capable of making and using tools. The human skull fossils from Yunxian provide important data for the study of human development history.
The spear of King Fuchai of Wu